Janet Napolitano: We shouldn’t wait until the border is secure to legalize illegals

posted at 10:41 am on March 27, 2013 by Allahpundit

No worries. She says the border’s already “as secure as it’s ever been,” even though her department has given up trying to measure that. Marco Rubio recently claimed that 10 million new illegals would cross the border over the next decade if there’s no new guest-worker program in place. Maybe Napolitano could quantify border control that way. Are things secure enough now to ensure that only nine million of them would make it? Eight million?

“I think that once people really look at the whole system and how it works, relying on one thing as a so-called ‘trigger’ is not the way to go,” she said at a Christian Science Monitor event. “There needs to be some kind of certainty in the bill so that people can know when they can legalize and then when the pathway to citizenship, earned citizenship, will open up.”…

Napolitano also cautioned against another commonly-used phrase in immigration reform: getting to the “back of the line” behind those trying to immigrate legally. The Obama administration has used the phrase as well, and Napolitano didn’t argue on Tuesday that undocumented immigrants should be given a quicker path than would-be legal immigrants. Still, she pointed out that the “line” isn’t easy to define.

“There’s also talk about getting in the back of the line — that’s easier said than done,” Napolitano said. “Calculating what the line is at any given time, it moves. So those judgments will have to be made.”

HuffPo’s under the impression that the Gang of Eight has agreed that improved border security is a prerequisite to the amnestization part of comprehensive immigration reform. Is that right? My understanding is that they’ve agreed security won’t be a prerequisite to probationary legal status. That’ll be available after the bill is enacted, provided illegals pay back taxes, show they have no criminal recorded, etc. (Rand Paul’s plan would make security improvements a prerequisite for probationary legalization but Paul’s not driving this train.) The open question is whether tightening the border will be a prerequisite for the citizenship process that’ll follow the initial legalization. Rubio’s said all along he’ll walk away if it isn’t. Chuck Schumer, however, initially resisted that demand. Has he since caved? There’s been some murmuring lately from the Senate group that they’ve agreed on virtually everything except work visas, so I assume there’s been a settlement of whether the path to citizenship will or won’t be triggered by increased security. And I further assume that that settlement broke Rubio’s way or else he’d have quit the group by now. Right? After all, there’s no reason for Schumer to fight hard against the GOP’s “trigger” demand: Initial legalization is more important, and once it’s in place he can sit back and count on political pressure from amnesty advocates to push the GOP into approving a path to citizenship before 2016 no matter what’s going on with the border.

Which, I assume, is why Jay Carney refused yesterday to back Napolitano’s call to decouple legalization from border security. The White House isn’t going to let a golden opportunity at “earned amnesty” fall apart over security improvements when they know Republicans will cave on that later:

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday refused to say whether linking a pathway to citizenship to border security metrics would be a deal breaker for the White House, hours after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she did not think such a provision should be included in a final immigration deal.

“Progress is being made. It’s being made in the Senate which is where the Senate hoped it would be made. And we are very much monitoring that process and engaging in that process, but it’s not done yet and I don’t want to prejudge a bill that hasn’t been written,” Carney said…

“I think what she was saying, and the assessment we do agree with, is that there are a variety of metrics by which you can measure and we do measure progress on border security,” Carney said Tuesday.

If those metrics don’t exist now, rest assured that they will — and that they’ll point to an allegedly secure border — when it comes time in a year or two for the path to citizenship to be triggered. We’ll know the plan in greater detail this afternoon, though. Obama’s set to give interviews to Univision and Telemundo, where he’ll surely be asked about border security as a trigger and whether it’ll be a dealbreaker if the Senate bill insists upon it at the GOP’s behest. Prediction: He’ll say it’s not a dealbreaker, and furthermore he’ll say nothing that might potentially jeopardize the Senate negotiations. Remember, the “sabotage theory” holds that O wants this bill to collapse so that he can go running around next summer before the midterms screaming about how Republicans hate Latinos. I think that theory’s badly mistaken, but if I’m wrong, today’s a prime opportunity for him to do some sabotaging. Stay tuned.

It’s nearly a 2,000 mile border. It’s no state secret that it will never be completely ‘secure’, even with an electrified fence covering every mile.

Not a problem. Once our socialist utopia has been fully established, the entire border will have electrified barbed wire, mines, machine gun towers and drones to keep the border secure…..from unpatriotic and misguided producers attempting to escape the new American paradise.

When it is your job to secure the border as director of homeland security you should do it. Your position is that, not setting policy for granting amnesty.

jake49 on March 27, 2013 at 1:04 PM

Interesting point – given that the Dems are busy attacking the County Sheriffs in Colorado who have said they will not enforce the new gun control laws because they are unenforceable and violate the 2nd Amendment.

dentarthurdent on March 27, 2013 at 1:21 PM

Yes, yet cities and counties that have labeled themselves ‘sanctuaries’ for illegal aliens are lionized as examples for the rest of us to follow. The hypocrisy is staggering.

It’s nearly a 2,000 mile border. It’s no state secret that it will never be completely ‘secure’, even with an electrified fence covering every mile.

bayam on March 27, 2013 at 2:04 PM

Brayam, someday, you’ll stop bray-aming at the moon long enough to realise the point.

MY POINT was that this is not just Obama’s fault or Napolitano’s fault or Democrats’ fault. When Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress, they didn’t do everything that they could have done to address the problems concerning illegal immigration, which do NOT solely amount to a 2,000 mile line of demarcation along the Southern border.

You may recall that many of the 19 hijackers entered the country legally and overstayed their visas, which expired during either the Clinton or Bush administrations…depending on the individual. There is also a northern border, which has seen at least one terrorist (Ahmed Ressam) attempt to cross, numerous ports, thousands of miles of beaches, and who knows how many miles of airspace – all of which isn’t patroled by the FAA.

So why do you leftists believe that once you make all guns illegal, none will come across that unsecurable border?

dentarthurdent on March 27, 2013 at 2:19 PM

Because the big magnet in the sky will rip them out of the hands of any traffickers before they step foot on US soil…sort of like the bow-tie-wearing faeries on Calypso Louie’s Big Wheel in the Sky, who swoop down and magically remove all of the drugs off of the mules before they cross the border.

Dude, have you ever tried buying pot, coke or heroin in this country? It’s IMPOSSIBLE!

20,000,000 U.S. Citizens cross into Mexico and see how the Mexican Govt. likes it both ways.

Perfectly welcome as long as they bring cash and their American Express card, and/or retirement income to spend. If they come looking for demanding work, government handouts, free medical care and education and instant citizenship, well, God help them….’cause the Mexican government won’t.

20,000,000 U.S. Citizens cross into Mexico and see how the Mexican Govt. likes it both ways.

Perfectly welcome as long as they bring cash and their American Express card, and/or retirement income to spend. If they come looking for demanding work, government handouts, free medical care and education and instant citizenship, well, God help them….’cause the Mexican government won’t.

hawkeye54 on March 27, 2013 at 3:38 PM

If I remember correctly, the first offence for illegally entering Mexico or overstaying a visa is 2 years in prison and the second is either 5 or 10 years in prison – and it’s no Club Fed either. Also, foreigners cannot own property. You have to get a Mexican citizen to purchase the property and then it is only actually a leasehold with a term of up to 99 years.

The Mexican government is BRUTAL and should be charged with human rights abuses for what it does to illegals coming from central American countries like Guatemala. There have been discoveries of mass graves. Of course, it’s Arizona that’s treated like it’s Nazi Germany, the Khmer Rouge or the Serbs.

Talk by politicians about securing the border is just a smoke screen to keep you distracted while they craft their amnesty program. The way laws are enforced today the rewards of illegal entry outweigh the risk by too great a margin.

If they really wanted to do something about border security they would first mandate use of eVerify and enforce the laws against providing government benefits or employment to someone here illegally. Show a few business owners, corporate CEO’s, and the occasional bureaucrat on TV in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs and border traffic northbound would dry up except for the drug runners and worse types.

With the numbers down actually securing the border would become manageable.

The one thing that the postings here show me is that the US Government Dose not want to stop or even slow the illegal immigrant flow. The flow is not as great but still significant across the boarders with Canada in the general area of Detroit. APACHEWHOKNOWS reminded me of the boarder control in VietNam. He is right. If the Government wanted to they could patrol the 2000 mile boarder by electronic means. Controlling it in a few weeks with current technology and for a few Hundred Thousand. The Baltimore Washington area alone has more than 2000 miles of implanted road censors and traffic cameras that are monitored on line 24/7. There is no reason they can not patrol the boarders EXCEPT: They do not want to, they need the cheap labor and free votes.

What’s the problem? Build the great wall of America from sea to shining sea and make it 4ooo feet tall. Problem solved. Since when did the government decide which laws they think need enforcing and which don’t? What the government is saying is, law really mean nothing. Just choose which ones you think are important.

“Border security” isn’t just about physical barriers and patrolling bodies at the border, it’s about implementing behind-the-border measures like E-Verify, sanctions against sanctuary communities, data-sharing and data-mining by key government agencies like the IRS and ICE, etc.

Those are more important IMHO than a fence yet they seem completely absent from either the formal negotiations or the media debates.

Putting aside the stupid inside-the-Beltway crap, the bottom line is always the same with Democrats, and especially this vermin Obama — what is good for their political aspirations is far more important than what is good for the country.

People who are not at liberty are being told what to do; people, not at liberty, being told what to do are frequently told to do things they don’t want to do; people must be compelled to do what they do not want to do; enter a man with a gun.

Already seen this movie a thousand times. Not like the ending is a “twist.”

Janet Napolitano showed her incompetence when she was Governor of Arizona and the US Senate showed thir total incompetence by confirming as the head of DHS. Oh, I forgot, and we the voters showed our lack of competence by electing these incompetent politicians running this country.

Never understood why so many NDNs (young ones anyway) stood with Aztlan pretenders. I used to know a Commanche who bragged about the way his ancestors kicked Mexican azzes back to Mexico. I guess he wasn’t so representative of his people.

If this administration is seriously not going to protect the United States by securing its borders then it should immediately shut down the U.S. Border Patrol and stop this charade of trying to make it look like we are. Take down the fences, roll out a red carpet, & start using all that money being used on the Border Patrol & faux security to pay for all the entitlement programs the millions more of illegals are going to get.

Here’s another idea: Democrats could even start charging illegals $100 for registering to vote – they will in-turn receive a lamenated card which will allow them to vote & without having it on their possession they will be unable to receive any entitlements. Of course, only REGISTERED DEMOCRATS will receive this card. Democrats will get millions in campaign contributions & secure millions of registered new Democrats, & the ‘new voters’ will get back citizenship & all the free entitlements our tax dollars can pay for.

We already KNOW there are terrorist cells within the United States that have made it into the country as a result of our poor / non-existent policies…and disinterested/unconcerned govt…SO ‘SOON’ AFTER 9/11! It is going to take another – even larger / more devastating – terrorist attack perpetrated within the US by one of these cells before we realize what we have done to ourselves by failing to control & know who are cming into this country. Our leaders are more worried about votes, money, and ‘PC’ rather than our security & our survival…and it is only a matter of time before that ‘bites us’ in the proverbial ‘rear’.

I have no clue why we’re wringing our hands over this when our own phucking republican establishment representatives are on their hands and knees wiping strange liquids off their collective chins. And we’re allowing it! I’m done and so is this party if this decision is left up to the establishment.